Many businesses subscribe to toll-free, "800 number" telephone service to attract customers. Using 800 numbers, customers can call an 800 number subscriber free of charge to transact business. As the 800 number may be the only way for a prospective customer to contact the subscriber, the reliability and proper operation of a subscriber's 800 number is often crucial to the operation of the subscriber's business. Moreover, misdirected and improperly terminated customer telephone calls can annoy prospective customers who may go elsewhere to purchase goods and services.
As more advanced 800 number services become available to subscribers, the routing of 800 number telephone calls becomes increasingly complex and the risk of error increasingly great. For example, many advanced 800 number features require that multiple accesses be made to databases to properly route a call. Before completing such a call, a database must be accessed to determine what special call processing is required. A second database is then accessed to assign a routing number to the call. The increasing complexity of 800 number call routing and of 800 number databases makes it increasingly more difficult to provide reliable 800 number service.
Despite the ever-increasing complexity of 800 number service, there is no efficient means for testing the routing of 800 number calls. Nor is there a means for subscribers to directly test for themselves, without operator assistance, the operation of their 800 number service.